Why Do We Need Standardized Testing?
For over one hundred years, students of all ages are forced every year to endure the stress of pressure packed and ubiquitous standardized tests. They need to have their number two pencils ready as they mentally prepare themselves to take a test for hours on information that might not have even been covered. Standardized tests consist of fill in the blank and multiple choice questions, they require all test takers to answer the same questions in a consistent manner. Standardized testing is the main method of testing in the United States. These tests are used to determine progress, growth, and student achievement. However, test anxiety effects many students and prevents them from showing how much progress they have actually made. The No Child
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Left behind Act (NCLB) plays a huge role in the impact of standardized testing. When the NCLB Act was created, it put a great emphasis on standardized testing and how it was crucial to the success of students. America is not standard culturally, so how do we expect to test them all on a standard basis? Standardized tests emerged as an easy way to test large numbers of students efficiently. Before standardized testing, it was believed that not all humans were born with the same capacities. They must be educated according to the capacities that they have. The first form of standardized testing was Intelligence Quotient Tests, better known as IQ tests. IQ tests were used as a tool for racial and class based classification. They were developed in France, but began in the United States in the early 1900s to give a better understanding of an individual’s capacity. IQ tests revealed that the average intelligence age of an individual was thirteen. During the Progressive Era, it was believed that ethnicity affected intelligence. This idea ensured meritocracy. Spring explains, “Meritocracy is a concept of society based on the idea that each individual’s social and occupational position is determined by individual merit, not political or economic influence” (Spring, 271.) Meritocracy was to be achieved as a social goal. To create this merit-based society, it was needed to precisely prepare and select students for their places in the social order created. Whites were seen as more intelligent as blacks based on evidence of test scores, so they were rewarded for their merit.
Standardized tests also started out as a way for the World War One Army to determine which soldiers were able to hold leadership positions. They were eventually a way to test which students were college ready. They were originally created to assess a student about the knowledge and skills that they possessed in any specific subject, but in reality, they don’t necessarily indicate achievement. Spring argues, “It was hoped that testing in the schools would enable schools to fulfill the dream of providing fair and objective equality of opportunity through scientific selection. Tests were considered the key to a socially efficient society” (Spring, 279.) Standardized tests are used to decide placement of students in their classes. Today, they are a primary component of judging the failure or success of students in school.
Although there were no standardized tests during the common school era, the mindset instilled was still the same.
Horace Mann, the father of the common school movement developed a test to administer a group of students in 1800s. These tests made judgments about how students were doing at their current level and to see if they are ready to move up to a higher one. Testing during this era focused on memorization and oral tests such as oral spelling tests. The idea was to give each student equal opportunity in life. Students would have no distinction between the rich and the poor. Horace Mann believes in the equalization of all students and citizens through education. But with all his hard work he did not make much progress. Spring disputes, “In the simplest terms, the common school never became common to all students” (Spring, 87.) Common school ideologies argued that everyone would receive standardized equal …show more content…
education.
But in reality, schooling was not equal for everyone. Anyone that was not Protestant was taught differently, specializing in religious education. The Irish and Native Americans were believed to be inferior because of their beliefs, so they tried to correct their beliefs. Separate schools created no equal advantages. Although tests were believed to provide equal opportunity to students, separate schools created separate testing, and these tests justified racism and segregation. The idea of separate but equal continued into the Progressive Era. In 1896, in the Supreme Court case of Plessey v Ferguson, separate but “equal” facilities were ruled constitutional. But they were equal, separate facilities created inequalities between the races and marked one race as superior and the others as inferior. Although, there was no technology for standardized tests the goal of the common school movement was to educate Americans on an equal level and to provide everyone with the same schooling and the idea of human perfectibility. This was achieved through schooling by improving the individual and overall, improving social order. But all they accomplished was putting the racially inferior into separate schools. During the Civil Rights Era, the idea of separate schooling and facilities continued. But before the Civil War, it was considered a crime for African Americans to be educated in the South. The American government believed that separate schooling would be equal, but in reality, whites had better options and opportunities. It was not until the Supreme Court case of Brown v Board of Education, where it was ruled that separate education couldn’t be equal. All students should be educated together. Segregated schools only created unfair advantages for white men. With the decision of Brown v Board of Education, came the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Spring explains, “It states that no person, on the basis of race, color, or national origin, can be excluded from or denied the benefits of any program receiving federal financial assistance, and it requires all federal agencies to establish guidelines to implement this policy” (Spring, pg 390.) But by the 1960s, the only solution to ensure the unbiased development of students and their talents was to integrate schools. This idea of desegregation finally meant the beginning of equal schooling for everyone, ensuring the standardization of education through testing. This is when the origins of No Child Left Behind began, with Head Start, Title I, and the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 were signed by President Lyndon Johnson. In 2001, Title I would be renamed No Child Left Behind. In 1948, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) is formed.
The ETS created an increased importance of standardized testing in determining the status and income of Americans. In result of this new organization, the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) is created. Standardized tests are used as an equalizer of opportunity. It is a tool of segregation that creates separate intelligence, socioeconomic status, wealth, and privilege. Spring argues, “Chauncey (President of ETS) hoped that the ETS would fulfill his dream by developing a series of multiple-choice mental tests that would determine everyone’s place in society. Though the ETS never developed a full range of mental tests to classify the American population, the SAT became a central gatekeeper for dividing the population by income and status” (Spring, pg 363.) TSAT tests are still administered for college entrance today. It is considered a step up from the IQ tests; they are supposed to only predict success rates in college. The ETS created a new idea of meritocracy based on testing. It was argued that the SAT continued to uphold the idea of everyone receiving an equal opportunity in college
education.
Spring explains, “Lemann called the SAT a descendant of IQ-standardized tests. He considered the phenomenon of standardized testing, which gained greater importance in the twenty-first century as the driving force in American schooling” (Spring, pg 364.) Standardized tests have a huge impact on American schooling today. My generation has grown up with the No Child Left Behind Act, which developed in 2002. This Act was created to improve educational equality for students who come from low-income families. This is achieved by providing federal funding to school districts that have a large percentage of poor students. NCLB mandates state testing in reading, mathematics, and very few tests in science. Schools must publicly report their test results and categorize the results into subgroups such as: low-income students, students with disabilities, and different racial and ethnic groups.
The creation of the NCLB Act led to increased time spent on Math on English Language Arts and a shrinking curriculum on other subjects, with a decline in knowledge in science and social studies. When I was in middle school, my school forced students to take double periods of Math and ELA, forcing me to spend twice as much time on these subjects than any other subject, teaching us only the information for the standardized tests. Murrane and Papay proclaim, “Overall teachers overwhelmingly support the principles underlying the No Child Left Behind Legislation, including that schools should be held accountable for educating children all well. However, teachers are concerned that the incentives created by some provisions of the law have elicited unintended responses that reduce the quality of education provided to at least some children” (Murrane, and Papay, pg 152.) I felt that after the standardized tests were over, I forgot all of the skills and knowledge that I was forced to memorize. Instead of focusing on knowledge and learning, teachers are forced to teach to a test, ruining the education system.
All in all, The No Child Left Behind Act is a wonderful step in the right direction towards improving the state of education in this country, however with a few revisions and less emphasis on the importance of standardized testing, it could become even better. Standardized testing is just too much of a simple solution that no longer meets the needs of the children. Though it may require more time and effort, personalized education that benefits the individual student will indisputably lead to the improvement of the quality of education in this country. Instead, we are too focused on the equal schooling of children, when all children are still not considered equals.
Left behind Act (NCLB) plays a huge role in the impact of standardized testing. When the NCLB Act was created, it put a great emphasis on standardized testing and how it was crucial to the success of students. America is not standard culturally, so how do we expect to test them all on a standard basis? Standardized tests emerged as an easy way to test large numbers of students efficiently. Before standardized testing, it was believed that not all humans were born with the same capacities. They must be educated according to the capacities that they have. The first form of standardized testing was Intelligence Quotient Tests, better known as IQ tests. IQ tests were used as a tool for racial and class based classification. They were developed in France, but began in the United States in the early 1900s to give a better understanding of an individual’s capacity. IQ tests revealed that the average intelligence age of an individual was thirteen. During the Progressive Era, it was believed that ethnicity affected intelligence. This idea ensured meritocracy. Spring explains, “Meritocracy is a concept of society based on the idea that each individual’s social and occupational position is determined by individual merit, not political or economic influence” (Spring, 271.) Meritocracy was to be achieved as a social goal. To create this merit-based society, it was needed to precisely prepare and select students for their places in the social order created. Whites were seen as more intelligent as blacks based on evidence of test scores, so they were rewarded for their merit.
Standardized tests also started out as a way for the World War One Army to determine which soldiers were able to hold leadership positions. They were eventually a way to test which students were college ready. They were originally created to assess a student about the knowledge and skills that they possessed in any specific subject, but in reality, they don’t necessarily indicate achievement. Spring argues, “It was hoped that testing in the schools would enable schools to fulfill the dream of providing fair and objective equality of opportunity through scientific selection. Tests were considered the key to a socially efficient society” (Spring, 279.) Standardized tests are used to decide placement of students in their classes. Today, they are a primary component of judging the failure or success of students in school.
Although there were no standardized tests during the common school era, the mindset instilled was still the same.
Horace Mann, the father of the common school movement developed a test to administer a group of students in 1800s. These tests made judgments about how students were doing at their current level and to see if they are ready to move up to a higher one. Testing during this era focused on memorization and oral tests such as oral spelling tests. The idea was to give each student equal opportunity in life. Students would have no distinction between the rich and the poor. Horace Mann believes in the equalization of all students and citizens through education. But with all his hard work he did not make much progress. Spring disputes, “In the simplest terms, the common school never became common to all students” (Spring, 87.) Common school ideologies argued that everyone would receive standardized equal …show more content…
education.
But in reality, schooling was not equal for everyone. Anyone that was not Protestant was taught differently, specializing in religious education. The Irish and Native Americans were believed to be inferior because of their beliefs, so they tried to correct their beliefs. Separate schools created no equal advantages. Although tests were believed to provide equal opportunity to students, separate schools created separate testing, and these tests justified racism and segregation. The idea of separate but equal continued into the Progressive Era. In 1896, in the Supreme Court case of Plessey v Ferguson, separate but “equal” facilities were ruled constitutional. But they were equal, separate facilities created inequalities between the races and marked one race as superior and the others as inferior. Although, there was no technology for standardized tests the goal of the common school movement was to educate Americans on an equal level and to provide everyone with the same schooling and the idea of human perfectibility. This was achieved through schooling by improving the individual and overall, improving social order. But all they accomplished was putting the racially inferior into separate schools. During the Civil Rights Era, the idea of separate schooling and facilities continued. But before the Civil War, it was considered a crime for African Americans to be educated in the South. The American government believed that separate schooling would be equal, but in reality, whites had better options and opportunities. It was not until the Supreme Court case of Brown v Board of Education, where it was ruled that separate education couldn’t be equal. All students should be educated together. Segregated schools only created unfair advantages for white men. With the decision of Brown v Board of Education, came the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Spring explains, “It states that no person, on the basis of race, color, or national origin, can be excluded from or denied the benefits of any program receiving federal financial assistance, and it requires all federal agencies to establish guidelines to implement this policy” (Spring, pg 390.) But by the 1960s, the only solution to ensure the unbiased development of students and their talents was to integrate schools. This idea of desegregation finally meant the beginning of equal schooling for everyone, ensuring the standardization of education through testing. This is when the origins of No Child Left Behind began, with Head Start, Title I, and the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 were signed by President Lyndon Johnson. In 2001, Title I would be renamed No Child Left Behind. In 1948, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) is formed.
The ETS created an increased importance of standardized testing in determining the status and income of Americans. In result of this new organization, the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) is created. Standardized tests are used as an equalizer of opportunity. It is a tool of segregation that creates separate intelligence, socioeconomic status, wealth, and privilege. Spring argues, “Chauncey (President of ETS) hoped that the ETS would fulfill his dream by developing a series of multiple-choice mental tests that would determine everyone’s place in society. Though the ETS never developed a full range of mental tests to classify the American population, the SAT became a central gatekeeper for dividing the population by income and status” (Spring, pg 363.) TSAT tests are still administered for college entrance today. It is considered a step up from the IQ tests; they are supposed to only predict success rates in college. The ETS created a new idea of meritocracy based on testing. It was argued that the SAT continued to uphold the idea of everyone receiving an equal opportunity in college
education.
Spring explains, “Lemann called the SAT a descendant of IQ-standardized tests. He considered the phenomenon of standardized testing, which gained greater importance in the twenty-first century as the driving force in American schooling” (Spring, pg 364.) Standardized tests have a huge impact on American schooling today. My generation has grown up with the No Child Left Behind Act, which developed in 2002. This Act was created to improve educational equality for students who come from low-income families. This is achieved by providing federal funding to school districts that have a large percentage of poor students. NCLB mandates state testing in reading, mathematics, and very few tests in science. Schools must publicly report their test results and categorize the results into subgroups such as: low-income students, students with disabilities, and different racial and ethnic groups.
The creation of the NCLB Act led to increased time spent on Math on English Language Arts and a shrinking curriculum on other subjects, with a decline in knowledge in science and social studies. When I was in middle school, my school forced students to take double periods of Math and ELA, forcing me to spend twice as much time on these subjects than any other subject, teaching us only the information for the standardized tests. Murrane and Papay proclaim, “Overall teachers overwhelmingly support the principles underlying the No Child Left Behind Legislation, including that schools should be held accountable for educating children all well. However, teachers are concerned that the incentives created by some provisions of the law have elicited unintended responses that reduce the quality of education provided to at least some children” (Murrane, and Papay, pg 152.) I felt that after the standardized tests were over, I forgot all of the skills and knowledge that I was forced to memorize. Instead of focusing on knowledge and learning, teachers are forced to teach to a test, ruining the education system.
All in all, The No Child Left Behind Act is a wonderful step in the right direction towards improving the state of education in this country, however with a few revisions and less emphasis on the importance of standardized testing, it could become even better. Standardized testing is just too much of a simple solution that no longer meets the needs of the children. Though it may require more time and effort, personalized education that benefits the individual student will indisputably lead to the improvement of the quality of education in this country. Instead, we are too focused on the equal schooling of children, when all children are still not considered equals.